I went to a local antiques show over the weekend looking for something, but for what I did not know. I only knew I needed to replenish some of my stock with new (to me) and interesting items. It may come as a surprise to some readers that I don’t always plan what I am going to buy. In fact, many of the best items found during the course of my book hunting adventures have largely been the result of a combination of serendipity and “fingersptizengefuhl”. I often don’t know exactly what I’m looking for until I see it, and even then I am sometimes buying purely on a “hunch” that the item will be something I can sell.

I didn’t find too many books at the antique show, which mostly sells furniture, art, jewelry, crystal, and china, but I did find some very nice pieces of ephemera, including this 1910 chromolithograph canvas anatomy chart. It is big (2′ x 3 1/2′ ), it is bold and it is colorful, and I just couldn’t pass it up.

The chart is of a human figure, about thirty inches tall, showing in great detail the arterial, venous, and nervous systems with their branches, ramifications, and relations to each other and to other parts of the human anatomy. It is printed on canvas in bright, chromolithograph colors. There is a brief text of explanation at the sides of the picture corresponding to letters and numbers on the figure itself. Here are a few close-ups of the chart: